An incubator has a newborn chamber for providing an appropriate physiological environment for a newborn. In a closed type incubator, not only temperature but also humidity, oxygen concentration, and others in the newborn chamber enclosed by sidewalls and a ceiling are controlled by a control mechanism for temperature, humidity, and others disposed below the newborn chamber. In an open type incubator, a newborn chamber does not have a ceiling and, in addition, the sidewalls are slightly lower than those of the closed type incubator so that a treating person such as a doctor or a nurse can treat a newborn in the newborn chamber promptly. Even in the open type incubator, a bed in a newborn chamber and a newborn on the bed are warmed by a heat-radiating source disposed above the newborn chamber.
It is preferable that an incubator can be switched from one to another of the closed and open type incubators described above as required because it can eliminate the need to have both types of incubators. For this reason, switching type incubators have been proposed (e.g., Patent Literatures 1 and 2), which can be switched as required between the closed and open types by lowering and raising a canopy of the newborn chamber.
Incidentally, there may be a case where the inside of the newborn chamber of the closed type incubator is controlled so as to be at temperature not lower than body temperature of an adult and at a very high humidity. In this case, especially immediately after the incubator is switched from open type to closed type, dew may condense on the inner surface of the ceiling and others of the newborn chamber, due to the difference between temperature in the room where the incubator is installed and temperature at the inside of the newborn chamber. This dew condensation may encourage propagation of unwanted bacteria. In order to prevent such dew condensation, temperature difference between outer and inner surfaces of the newborn chamber has to be reduced by heating the outer surfaces of the ceiling and others of the newborn chamber. For that purpose, it is effective to heat the outer surfaces of the ceiling and others with a heat-radiating source.
The ceiling and others of the newborn chamber, however, are placed higher than the bed and a newborn on the bed. Therefore, in order to radiate heat over a broad area of the ceiling and others, the heat-radiating source has to be disposed higher than in a case where only the bed and the newborn on the bed are warmed. If, however, the heat-radiating source is disposed too high, there is a possibility that the incubator, when conveyed, can not pass through an entrance of a room or some other possibility. It is, therefore, preferable to use a closed type incubator in which the heat-radiating source is disposed at a high position when heating with this source is performed and to use a closed type incubator in which the heat-radiating source is not disposed at a high position when heating with this source is not performed.
Furthermore, a newborn in critical condition requiring a resuscitation treatment is simultaneously treated by many treating persons, and there is no danger that the newborn falls down from a bed when the many treating persons surround the bed. For these reasons, although a resuscitation treatment device has a heat-radiating source for warming the bed and a newborn on the bed, the bed has neither a ceiling nor sidewalls.
As described above, there is a possibility of, when caring for a newborn, using an open type incubator, a closed type incubator in which a heat-radiating source is disposed at a high position, a closed type incubator in which a heat-radiating source is not disposed at a high position, and a resuscitation treatment device. It is, however, not easy, in terms of cost, facilities, or others, for a maternity hospital or the like to have a number to some extent of each of these four types of devices.